Team Building Skills Definition & Glossary of Terms

MBM Glossaries: Team Building Skills Definition

This glossary contains our Team Building Skills definition and a list of terms frequently used in the topic of Team Building Skills. For a comprehensive guide to how perfecting team building can help your business progress, check out our free Ultimate Guide to Team Building Skills.

Assessment

An act of evaluating a result of a test or exam. This judges the quality or ability of the examinee.

Autonomy

Having freedom or independence in planning, decision making, and acting. An individual with autonomy is able to carry out tasks and decisions without being easily swayed or manipulated by external factors.

Behaviour

A way one acts in response to other people. This could either be negative or positive. Certain behaviours may affect other people’s interaction towards each other.

Challenges

Tasks that require critical thinking and team cooperation. Individuals may define what is challenging to them differently. Variety and understanding areas for opportunities are important aspects to take into consideration when creating challenges for your team. On the flip side, understanding your team’s strengths and weaknesses will help in overcoming difficult challenges.

Collaboration

An act of producing or creating something with a partner or with a group.

Competence

Having the skills and the attitude to be able to do something efficiently.

Delegate

Entrusting a task or position to somebody else. Responsible delegation is when the receiver’s skills and available time is taken into consideration to ensure success.

Discipline

An ability to obey rules or train oneself to a certain type of behaviour or expectation.

Dissatisfied

Discontent or unhappiness with the outcomes or the way things are run.

Dynamics

The chemistry between individuals in a group. This includes how they agree or disagree with each other and how they respond to conflict as a team.

Effectiveness

The capability to achieve success or progress at an optimal rate.

Employee Engagement

Employee’s passion and commitment to the organisation, a very valuable trait that the organisation relies on to achieve growth and success.

Evaluate

To appraise.

Exercise

A test that is given to an individual or group to measure certain traits, skills, or even personalities.

Favouritism

Giving an unfair treatment to a person or a group, thus, giving them an unfair advantage over other people who are treated normally.

Facilitator

A person who helps the group with tasks given to them, often they help them understand rules or parts of a test or challenge.

Field Trips

An excursion that involves taking a group of people to a place that is far away from their usual environment.

Flat Organisation

A type of organisational structure that has few to a nonexistent level of management; No hierarchy between the staff and the management.

Flexibility

The employee or employer’s ability to make or meet arrangements in whichever working conditions that affect work productivity.

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning, Transforming

A model published by Dr Bruce Tuckman containing a very helpful explanation about developing a team and its behaviour:

Forming

A stage where every member or part of a team is polite or positive. Others might feel a little bit anxious since they do not understand what to do.

Storming

A stage wherein every member of a team or group start to push each other to their limits or boundaries. A stage where teams start to fail.

Norming

A stage where people start to understand each other’s beliefs, difference and being able to understand each others’ strengths and weaknesses.

Performing

A stage where people start to work well, being able to perform tasks without disrupting performance.

Adjourning

The first of two additional stages added by Tuckman. It refers to the team breaking up after the specific task or objective has been completed.

Transforming

The second of two additional stages added by Tuckman. It involves the team remaining together but moving onto other tasks and objectives.

Group Cohesiveness

Being able to bond as a group, acting like one and promote a much more organised team.

Hawthorne Experiment

The history of Team Building can be traced back as early as the late 1920s and The Hawthorne Experiment. It was led by the late Professor Elton Mayo. It tested how workers in a group performed when subjected to different conditions. The findings led employers to rethink how employees should be grouped to create effective teams in the workforce.

Human Factors and Ergonomic Methods

A book published by Dr Eduardo Salas that explains some approaches about human capabilities and its limitations.

Improvement

An action where a trait of a person or a result of a test has improved.

About Aileen Artificio

Aileen has been working in Digital Marketing for the last 8 years, primarily focusing on planning and content creation for businesses and helping them find a voice in an ever-changing digital realm. She is entangled in a perpetual quest to discover tastes around the globe and the stories they offer.